Nut and pipe wrench



May13,193o. N H HOELPER' 1,758;664

NUT AND PIPE WRENCH Filed June v12, 1929 INVENTOR Patented May 13, 1930 PATENT FFQE HUGO HOELPER, OF TACONY, PENNSYLVANIA NUT AND PIPE NRE-NCH Application led .Tune 12,

Adjustable nut wrenches, also called monkey wrenches, belong to the most commonly used tools. The user adjusts such a wrench, so that the width between the jaws of the tool approximately corresponds to or exceeds the width across the iats of the nut to be gripped. The nuts to be gripped,-although correspending in size to each other, as standard nuts, while they are new,-are roughened, worn off or otherwise damaged on their flats, while in use, and a monkey wrench which is set to fit a new nut may not readily slide over a nut of corresponding size, which is worn. Hence the user, to grip any series of nuts of supposedly the same size, will frequently have to reset the wrench if he desires to firmly grip such nuts. 0r he will set his wrench to a width to t all the nuts in question and therefore he will not grip the nuts squarely, upon their flats, but the jaws of his monkey wrench will engage the edges thereof, damaging these edges and causing the nut to become still more worn in a short period of time. l

It has been one of the objects of my invention to overcome this dificulty, it is another object of my invention to provide means to press the jaws of the monkey wrench against the ats of the nut to be turned, while the wrench is engaged thereupon; to allow the grip of the jaws of the wrench upon the flats of a nut to be, released and to increase the distance between the jaws, by relaxing simply the pressure of the hand of the operator, so that the edges of the nut are cleared thereby and that the operator by releasing the pressure of the hand may rotate the monkey wrench around the nut and engage, by a simple operation, upon the flats of the nut adjoining the flats he has previously gripped, whereas ordinarily the wrench has to be withdrawn sideways from the nut to disengage from one pair of parallel faces, and it has to be slipped onto the nut again, to engage another pair of parallel faces.

It has been another object of my invention to provide simple means to decrease and increase the distance between the jaws of a wrench by control of the pressure applied to the wrench by the hand, in order to engage 1929. Serial No. 370,309.

round objects, tubing, pipes, etc., with such a pressure, that the wrench does not slip or slide on said round object-s, when they are to be turned by the wrench. Another object of my invention is to adhere in the construction of the adjusting parts of the wrench to the design of formerly usedwrenches, so that the operator can readily1 getused to the handling of my novel tool. It has also been an object of my invention to arrange the novel means of my wrench, which serve to bring about a quick control thereof, in and around the handle, out of the way of the operating end, to give to these parts a simple and fool proof construction, and to shape them in such manner that the operators hand is not disaccommodated by my improvements during the steady use of the wrench of this type. Additional features of my invention are tensional means to readily return the wrench to the open position, which are firmly and permanently held in the proper position and the life of which is negligibly impaired by continued use of the wrench.

Vith these and other objects in view l have developed my improved wrench in accordance with the illustrations of the accompanying drawing, which are described in the following:

Figure 1 is an elevation of my novel nut and pipe wrench, in an open position. The parts of the wrench which turn and slide during its operation are sectioned substantially along a central bisecting line of the wrench.

Figure 2 shows a correspondingv bottom view of my wrench, partly sectioned up to a central bisecting line along a plane indicated by the corresponding numerals in Figure 1.

Figure 3 shows an elevation of lthe wrench of Figure 1, in a similar view. unsectioned and in a closed position.

Similar numerals refer to similar parts throughout the various views.

rThe L-shaped stem 4l of my wrench extends through substantially the whole length thereof and carries on its upper end the head 5. In accordance with the commonly used construction ofmonkey wrenches, a jaw 6, slidably arranged upon the stem 4;, faces the head 5, and an adjusting screw 7 with a knurled portion 8 engages upon a tapped hole thereof. The lower end of the adjusting screw 7 is journaled in and thrustwise retained upon the lip 9 laterally extending from a sleeve 10, which is slidable upon the stem 4 along a rectangular part thereof. This rectangular part of the stem is slightly less wide, downward from an offset 11, than the upper end of the stem upon which slides the jaw 6. The sleeve 10, while of a rectangular cross section along its upper inner portion, is suitably shaped on the outside to afford convenient grip for the hand and its outside has an oval cross section at the point where it fits into the palm of the hand. To give this outer contour to the sleeve without making it too heavy and to allow a better grip for the hand of the operator, part of the outer face of the sleeve may be made of wood or other material which affords a convenient grip to the hand and such a section of material set into or onto the sleeve is indicated by the inlay 12. In order to give to the sleeve a. handle shape, its lower end is contracted. The rectangular inside of the sleeve shapes down to a round hole at the lower end thereof,which is tapped and which serves to receive a pivot screw 13. This pivot screw closes the lower end of my wrench and over its pivoted end lits a compression spring 14, the upper end of which similarly fits onto a pivot or over a pivot 15 centrally extending downward from the bottom end of the stem.

There are registering holes in the sleeve on both sides of the stem. Tn these holes is journaled the stud 16. In the stem 4 a clearance slot 17 for this stud 16 extends vertically and allows a sliding movement, up and down, of the sleeve 10 upon the stem 4, against and with the tension of the compression spring 14.

The stud 16 extends on both ends for a certain distance from the holes in which it is journaled upon sleeve 10. Upon these ends of the stud 16 are fastened the ears of the spatulate lever 18 which partly sheathes the sleeve 10 and which is molded, cast, pressed or cut into a shape substantially 'ting over the handle-shaped euter face of the sleeve .10. From the hole inside of the lever 18 protrudes the tongue 19, the tapered lower edge 20 of which engages upon the curved lower wall 21 of a vertical slot 22 in the stem 4, The hump of the flat spring 23 lies upon the hollow inside of the lever 18 and is retained in a central position by the tongue 19, which extends through a corresponding opening therein. The ends of the fiat spring 23 rest under tension upon the part of the wall of the sleeve 10 over which lits the lever 18. The flat spring 23 thus normally presses the handle with the lever 18 away from the sleeve 10 in countercloclwise rotation around stud 16: this outward rotation is checked when the stud 16 comes to abut against the bottom wall of the slot 17 and it is additionally checked by an upward extension 24 of the lever 18, which, under the pressure of the tension of spring 23 comes to rest in abutment upon the upper end of the sleeve 10. There is a clearance opening 25 in the sleeve 10 for the tongue 19, the upper edge 26 of which opening may touch said tongue in sliding abutment, if the upper side of the tongue has a curvature concentric to pin 16.

lf the wrench is to be exclusively used for gripping nuts, Iuse flat faces on the bottom of the head 5 and on the top of the jaw 6, as indicated in Figure 1` But fine grooves may be provided in said faces to allow a firmer grip upon the parts to be held, without doing damage to the faces of said parts. Said grooves may take the shape of the tilted teeth shown on the bottom of head 5 and on the top of the jaw 6 in the modification of Figure 3, and my improved wrench thus may be used to grip circular or oddly shaped obec'ts in the same manner in which it is adapted to flat, parallel faces.

My wrench operates as follows:

The j aw 6 is set by the adjusting screw 8 to a certain distance from the head 5, Said distance being slightly greater than the width or diameter of the object to be gripped. When the operator now approaches the object to be gripped with this wrench and slides the head and j aw thereonto, he tightens his grip upon the handle part of the monkey wrench, thus pressing the lever 18 from its normal position of Figure 1 towards the stem of the wrench, against the tension of spring 23. This causes the tapered bottom side of the tongue 19 to slide along the curved bottom wall of slot 22, and the sleeve 10, upon which the lever is journaled, is thereby pressed upward in respect to the stem, or the stem is pressed downward, in respect to the sleeve, and the spring 14 is compressed thereby. The motion of the sleeve in respect to the stem is transmitted by means of the adjusting screws to the jaw 6 which is caused to move towards the head 5, so that the head 5 and the jaw 6 close in upon the object to be gripped and firmlv engage its surface. Normally the head and jaw will close in upon the object to be gripped after the lever has rotated for only a short distance in clockwise direction; but the head and jaw may approach each other to a considerably greater extent, this movement of the two parts towards each other being only limited by the extent to which the lever 18 can approach the sleeve 10. During` the full period of approach of the sleeve and the lever, the tapered lower side of the tongue 19 continues to exert its pressure upon the curved bottom wall of slot 22, moving the stem towards the pivot screw 13, against the pressure of the compression spring 15. When the operator rel-eases the pressure of his hand, the respective parts of my wrench are immediately returned to their normal position of Figure 1, owing to the pressures of springs 14 and 23. If the wrench is to be set to grip, in quick rotation, various sides of a certain object,` as for instance in the tightening or loosening of a nut, and is to release and move away from the faces to be engaged, between engagements, to such an extent as to allow `ll e head and the jaw to clear, during such intervals, the edges of said object, the adjusting screw 7 is set, in the beginning, so that the head and the aw will just grip the obj ect when the lever has been completely pressed towards the sleeve 10; thus the head and the jaw will move away from each other, when the handle of the wrench is released, to such a distance, that the edges of the object are cleared. This applies to quick operation of polygon al objects, of parts which have partly round and partly flat sides, of roun-d objects, such as pipes, or of any other object of an odd contour.

The action of the flat spring 23, pushing the lever 18 away f rom the sleeve 1Q, is supplementary to the action of the compression spring 14 below the stem 4. The tension required for the flat spring 23 depends on the angle of incline of the bottom edge of tongue 19. lf that angle is reasonably large and the bottom edge of tongue 19 and the curved bottom wall of the slot 22 in the stem are smooth so that they do not frictionally engage each other to an appreciable extent, the Hat spring 23 may be omitted entirely, the compression spring 14 being, under those circumstances, sufficient to return the wrench to its normal position of Fig. 1 after it had been closed by the movement of lever 1S towards sleeve 10.

Although I have shown and described one form of embodiment of my invention in detail, yet I do not wish to be limited thereby, except as the state of the art and the appended claims may require, for it is obvious that various modifications and changes may be made in the form of embodiment of my invention, without departing from the spirit and scope thereof.

I claim:

1. A wrench, comprising a stem, a longitudinal slot in said stem, a head fixed upon said stem, a jaw movable toward and away from said head, a slide upon said stem operatively connected to said jaw, a stud on said slide registering in said slot, a lever roclrably mounted on said stud, disposed over said slide, a spring acting betweensaid sli-de and stem tensioning said stem out of said slide, a tongue integral with and extending from said lever slidably engaging said stem in a plane angularly inclined to the longitudinal axis of said stem, to move said stem in said slide in a direction opposed to the tension of said spring, said stud engaging the opposite ends of said longitudinal slot in said stem, to limit the longitudinal movement of said slide and stem relatively to each other in either direction.

2. A wrench, comprising a stem, having a transverse opening therein near one end and a head fixed upon the other end thereof, a longitudinal slot in said stem intermediate said head and said transverse opening, a jaw movable toward and away from said head, a slide upon said stem operatively connected to said jaw, a stud on said slide registering in said longitudinal slot, a lever rockably mounted on said stud disposed over said slide, a spring acting between said slide and stem tensioning said stem out of said slide, a tongue integral with and extending from said lever slidably registering in said transverse opening in said stem and engaging a face thereof, to move said stem in said slide in a direction opposed to the tensioning of said spring, said stud engaging the opposite ends of said longitudinal slot in said stem, to limit the longitudinal movement of said slide and said stem relatively to each other, in either direction.

3. A wrench, comprising a stem having a transverse opening therein with a face angu? larly inclined to the longitudinal axis of said stem, near one end of said stem, and a head fixed upon the other end thereof, a longitudinal slot in said stem intermediate said head, and said transverse opening, a jaw movable toward and away from said head, a slide upon said stem operatively connected to said aw, a stud on said slide registering in said longitudinal slot, a lever roclrably mounted on said stem disposed over said slide and adapted to be pressed theretowards, a spring acting between said slide and said stem, tensioning said stem out of said slide, a tongue integral with and extending from said lever slidably registering in said transverse opening and engaging the angularly disposed face thereof when said lever is rocked towards said slide, to move said stem in said slide in a direction opposed to the tension of said spring, and a spring acting between said slide and lever to normally tension said lever away from said slide and said tongue out of said transverse opening, said stud engaging the opposite ends of said longitudinal slot in said stem to limit the longitudinal movement` of said slide and stem relatively to each other, in either direction.

Signed at Tacony in the county of Philadelphia and State of Pennsylvania this tenth day of June A. D. 1929. Y

HUGO HOELPER. 

